Personalizing computerized customer service

ABSTRACT

A method for improving user satisfaction with automated response computer driven systems is provided. In one embodiment the automated computer system utilizes a Web browser accessing at least a Web site. In another embodiment, the automated computer system is a telephonic response system with voice recognition and generation capability. In each embodiment the user is first prompted to provide indications of user language usage preferences which are then analyzed and stored in a user profile. Thereafter, subsequent information from the automated system is modified in accordance with the stored user profile before presentation to the user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/606,683 filed on Jun. 26, 2003 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,515,694on Apr. 7, 2009.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to facilitating interaction between a userand an information handling system. More particularly, it relates totailoring subsequent system messages to a user as a function of theuser's individual language pattern as determined from a first usersystem interaction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is a well known practice for Web sites, particularly those involvinge-commerce, to prompt a user to choose a specific language upon enteringthe site. Thereafter, the user is presented site data in the chosenlanguage. For example, a user selection of “UK” as opposed to “USA” willcause subsequently presented site data to have UK English spellings,idioms, currency and the like. Every user, however, selecting a givenlanguage receives the exact same presentation of site data. In a similarmanner, users of voice mail menus are early on presented with theopportunity to select a language in which to continue, e.g. English orSpanish. After making a specific language choice, every user choosingthe same language receives the same subsequent messages.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,290 discloses a system and method for presentingcustomized, personalized advice for a customer of a financialinstitution based on a customer profile generated by the systemaccording to an analysis of the totality of the customer's interactionwith the system. This system, and method, accommodates customer entrythrough a variety of modes including via a Web site, over a telephoneline, at a kiosk and through an automated teller machine (ATM). Acustomer profile is maintained which includes a customer's choice oflanguage and gender of voice used in presenting oral information. Manyother aspects of personalized customer characteristics are alsomaintained relating to the customer's prior relationship history,financial status and product preferences.

It is generally accepted that people perceive information as morecredible and more helpful when that information is phrased, orally or inwriting, using pronouns in the person matching the speakers' typicalusage. While users of computerized systems are in many ways presentedinformation by those systems, which information is customized on manylevels, it would be desirable to present information subsequent to auser's first contact with an automated computer system in a stylematching that user's usual, and therefore assumed, preferred languageusage pattern.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method for dynamically adjusting thelanguage usage pattern of messages from an automated computer system tothe user as a function of that user's previously stored language usagepattern preferences. This feature is independent of the actual languagespoken/written by the user. As used herein, language usage patternincludes, but is not limited to, personal pronoun preference, pacing,and volume.

The present invention in a preferred embodiment contemplates pluralmodes of user access to the automated computer system, such as via a Website or via telephone. The present invention comprises front-end add onsoftware, adaptable to existing automated, interactive computer systems,for determining user preferences in pronoun person and other componentsof a given user's language usage pattern.

The inventive method, as implemented in software adapted for use whenviewing a Web site, first presents textual information to a user uponuser entry into a system having the present invention. The user isprompted to select preferable paragraphs and/or phrases the userdetermines as more interesting or more helpful. These selectedpreferences become part of a user profile maintained by the system.Thereafter, any remaining text to be shown to the user is dynamicallyadjusted for presentation to the user in accordance with the user'spreviously designated and stored preferences.

When implemented in conjunction with a voice recognition application thepresent invention presents questions to a user upon first entry into thesystem, i.e., the user's first phone call. User answers are parsed forpronoun person usage, pacing and volume. This information is stored inthe user profile maintained by the system. Thereafter, subsequentmessages are presented to the user in a style corresponding to thatuser's language usage pattern.

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptionwhich is presented having reference to the accompanying figures, whereinlike reference numerals and symbols are used throughout to denote thesame elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically depicts elements in a visual system embodying thepresent invention; and

FIG. 2 illustrates elements of the present invention in an aural system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is preferably embodied in software which is usedin conjunction with a Web site or the like as well as with telephonicsystems having voice recognition and generation capabilities. Thepresent invention provides a more personalized experience for a userinteracting visually or aurally with an automated system, therebyimproving overall user satisfaction.

As noted above, some levels of personalization are available forinteractive computer systems. The method of the present inventionrepresents an improvement over what is currently available by moreclosely matching computer generated and delivered information to theuser's preferred language usage patterns modifying the style but not thesubstance of the information provided to the user.

Style sheets are known and principally comprise a summary of editorialconventions to be followed in preparing text for publication or othermode of presentation. Visual style sheets include such features as font,color, page layout and the like but have no effect on the substantivecontent of the information conveyed.

In a similar manner, aural style sheets include definitions of suchaspects as volume, pitch, pronunciation rules, speed as well as suchconventions pertaining to how and whether numerals and punctuation marksare presented. Aural style sheets, like conventional style sheets,affect expression rather than the substantive content of the conveyedinformation.

Using the present invention, in essence, provides visual and aural stylesheets enhanced with entries which change substantive aspects of thecomputer generated and delivered information including personal pronounsand pacing.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an embodiment of the present invention in agraphical interactive computer system will be described. A user machine10, equipped with a Web browser or the like, is shown bidirectionallyconnected via the Web 14 to Web application 16 which includes thepresent invention. Web application 16 interfaces with a database 24 atwhich user profiles may be created and maintained. Web application 16connects with a Web site 32 as those skilled in the art will understand.

In operation, the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1, provides a user uponan attempt to access Web site 32, to then be presented choices by Webapplication 16. These choices are preferably designed to includerelatively short text passages representing a variety of language usagepatterns, one of which may be selected by the user. Thereafter, Webapplication 16 creates a user profile 36 in database 24. Any furthercommunication between Web site 32 and user machine 10 passes through Webapplication 16 which applies the user profile to information generatedby Web site 32 before it is presented to the user.

Text presented by Web application 16 to a user from which the userchooses may, for example, contain identifying parameters which will besaved in database 24. These parameters are not seen by the user. Ratherthey are flags saved in the database. In the case of pronoun choice, forexample, three paragraphs could be presented by Web application 16 tothe user. The paragraphs would be pre-written using ‘I-You’, ‘We-They’and ‘I-They’. The user would be prompted to select the paragraph foundmost pleasing. Upon user selection of a paragraph, Web application 16would store an appropriate, corresponding flag in database 24.Thereafter, Web application 16 would check the user selected pronouncombination flag in database 24 before presenting any further writtencontent to the user and present that content modified to correspond tothe user's choice. The content is dynamically modified beforepresentation based on grammatical rules established in the programminglogic.

An implementation of the present invention in an interactive telephonicapplication will now be described having reference to FIG. 2 whichillustrates data flow from the user to and from the computerized system.A user accesses the system of FIG. 2 via telephone 50 in a conventionalmanner. The present invention is included in server 56 which runs voiceprocessing software and is connected to database 68 for storing customerprofile information. Connected also to database 68 is automated voiceresponse database 72. Thus, the user may first be prompted to supplyanswers to questions presented by server 56, which answers are analyzedto determine the user's preferred language usage preferences as earlierdescribed. Further, the software of the present invention in server 56determines from its analysis of user responses what settings to put inplace for pacing, volume and gender of the voice to be generated toconvey information from the automated telephonic application. A customerprofile containing these values is created and stored in database 68. Aprofile stored in database 68 is applied to any data to be subsequentlypresented to the user from database 62 before that data is input toserver 74. Server 74 includes means for generating an aural response tothe user of the information from voice response database 72 viatelephone 50.

The use of the method of the invention is particularly beneficial withsystems such as those used by vehicle rental companies and financialmanagement concerns, but may be adapted to other systems where usersatisfaction with a transactional experience is important.

In operation, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention in avoice based system begins when a user calls into a financial portfoliomanagement company or the like. The system greets the user with a voicegenerated message essentially asking “What would you like to do today?”

The application of the present invention then parses the user's responseto identify three key factors or parameters: pacing of speech; volume ofspeech; and gender of speech. These factors are saved in database aspart of the user profile. Pacing of speech is saved as words per second.Volume is saved as a decibel level, and gender is saved as male orfemale as a function of the speaker's (user's) frequency range.Thereafter, for the remainder of the transaction any voice generatedresponses to the user are modified to utilize the identified and savedparameters. For the rest of the call pacing is set a words per secondrate matching that of the user. Volume is set within a decibel levelrange having predetermined upper and lower limits chosen as a functionof the saved user's decibel level. Gender of the saved user parameter isused to select voice response gender.

Those having skill in the art will appreciate that other question andresponse analyses may be implemented and that a user may be presentedwith other optional parameters to characterize the remainder of thetelephonic transaction.

The present invention provides a more pleasing online or telephonictransaction experience for a user by analyzing user input at thebeginning of a transaction and using the results of the analysis tomodify the style of the visual or aural, respectively, contentthereafter presented to the user. In an online embodiment the user isprompted to choose a style. In a telephonic application the user's vocalinput is parsed to determine parameters governing content deliverystyle.

The above noted and other modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present invention as described in theclaims appended below.

1. A method for enhancing user satisfaction with a telephonic responsesystem comprising a computer, said method comprising: said computerquerying a user at a telephone to determine preferred voice qualitieswhile the computer is engaged in telephone communication with the uservia the telephone; said computer receiving, from the user at thetelephone, responses to said querying; said computer determining fromthe responses received from the user, using voice recognition functionsof the telephonic response system, the preferred voice qualities; andsaid computer storing, in a user profile of the user located in adatabase accessible to the computer, the preferred voice qualitiesdetermined from the responses received from the user.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the method further comprises: after said storing, saidcomputer accessing the stored preferred voice qualities; after saidaccessing, said computer modifying responses to the user to be presentedto the user, said modifying comprising generating the modifiedresponses, using voice generation functions of the telephonic responsesystem, such that voice qualities in the generated modified responsesmatch the accessed preferred voice qualities; and said computerproviding the modified responses to the user at the telephone.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said storing the preferred voice qualitiescomprises storing voice qualities comprising pacing of speech expressedas a time rate of speech text, volume of speech expressed as speechloudness, and gender of speech expressed as male or female, and whereinthe method comprises determining the gender of speech from a range ofsound wave frequency of the responses received from the user to saidquerying.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the method furthercomprises: after said storing, said computer accessing the storedpreferred voice qualities; after said accessing, said computer modifyingresponses to the user to be presented to the user, said modifyingcomprising generating the modified responses, using voice generationfunctions of the telephonic response system, such that voice qualitiesin the generated modified responses match the accessed preferred voicequalities; and said computer providing the modified responses to theuser at the telephone.
 5. A telephonic response system, said telephonicresponse system comprising a computer, said computer configured toperform a method for enhancing user satisfaction with the telephonicresponse system, said method comprising: said computer querying a userat a telephone to determine preferred voice qualities while the computeris engaged in telephone communication with the user via the telephone;said computer receiving, from the user at the telephone, responses tosaid querying; said computer determining from the responses receivedfrom the user, using voice recognition functions of the telephonicresponse system, the preferred voice qualities; and said computerstoring, in a user profile of the user located in a database accessibleto the computer, the preferred voice qualities determined from theresponses received from the user.
 6. The telephonic response system ofclaim 5, wherein the method further comprises: after said storing, saidcomputer accessing the stored preferred voice qualities; after saidaccessing, said computer modifying responses to the user to be presentedto the user, said modifying comprising generating the modifiedresponses, using voice generation functions of the telephonic responsesystem, such that voice qualities in the generated modified responsesmatch the accessed preferred voice qualities; and said computerproviding the modified responses to the user at the telephone.
 7. Thetelephonic response system of claim 5, wherein said storing thepreferred voice qualities comprises storing voice qualities comprisingpacing of speech expressed as a time rate of speech text, volume ofspeech expressed as speech loudness, and gender of speech expressed asmale or female, and wherein the method comprises determining the genderof speech from a range of sound wave frequency of the responses receivedfrom the user to said querying.
 8. The telephonic response system ofclaim 7, wherein the method further comprises: after said storing, saidcomputer accessing the stored preferred voice qualities; after saidascertaining, said computer modifying responses to the user to bepresented to the user, said modifying comprising generating the modifiedresponses, using voice generation functions of the telephonic responsesystem, such that voice qualities in the generated modified responsesmatch the preferred voice qualities; and said computer providing themodified responses to the user at the telephone.